If your Wi-Fi router supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) — and most newer home/small-business routers do — it might easily reveal its passwords to a readily available hacking tool. You can use that tool to be 100 percent certain your router isn’t vulnerable to malicious WPS hacking. Here’s how.

Here you are, faced with a new Windows 8 computer — a gift, perhaps, or maybe a machine you have to get going for a friend or family member. What on earth do you do with it? How do you start without, uh, Start? Let me take you through eight easy steps toward Win8 enlightenment.

Windows 8 is hardly out the door, and it’s already having its share of patching problems — including some never seen on previous Windows platforms. If you’re trying to sort through Windows 8 security, here are some tips that might save time and effort.

It’s possible to run all your software — operating system, applications,utilities, everything — from a single flash drive or DVD. But a completely self-contained software environment also comes with some major drawbacks that you need to be aware of.

Which instant-messaging client will take the place of the world’s most popular IM client? Skype has the inside track, but there are a number of useful alternatives, many of which connect you to multiple messaging platforms.

We come to the last set of updates for 2012, and it’s the usual round of suspects — new Internet Explorer and Windows kernel fixes. But many Windows users will also see an awkward assortment of reissued patches and a slew of Win8 fixes.

Curious about your Internet speed? Most Internet service providers (ISPs) offer some sort of throughput test tool on their sites — just click, and you’ll get a couple of often-impressive numbers. It’s in an ISP’s interest to provide the best speed numbers possible; your actual throughput is probably something quite different.

The holiday season is almost here for most Windows Secrets subscribers. Many of us are busily making our lists of gifts for friends and family. For those recipients who use Windows, may we suggest one of our series of e-books — compendiums of Windows Secrets articles, organized into concise, easy-to-read, guides.

To celebrate the Hobbit, Air New Zealand has produced an epic safety video. It’s certain to surprise and entertain jetloads of tourists on their way to see the fictional and real life of a dazzling country.

It’s easy to change a Wi-Fi router’s password and other settings — even if you can’t find the owner’s manual. Some common shortcuts — and a built-in Windows tool — are usually all you need to access your router’s configuration software.

Windows 8’s SmartScreen feature helps protect users from malicious software, but advanced users might find its warnings annoying. Fortunately, as with all things Windows, there are ways to take control of SmartScreen — and a few other Win8 features.

Free scanning products offer to diagnose and fix PC problems. But are they looking for the right problems? A recent spate of TV ads for a PC scanning and repair suite prompted me to take a look at a couple of free scanners — and consider what’s really important for maintaining and securing PCs.

We rely on SSL certificates for safe Web surfing and secure online transactions; but how many of us understand the issues surrounding security certs — or those related error messages? Here’s what you need to know about SSL certificates — and how update KB 2661254 helps solve certificate problems.

Most people acknowledge the mental toughness required for life in Manhattan, one of the most densely populated peninsulas on the planet. Zelda, who has lived in Battery Park since mid-2003, must be exceptionally resolute — and cannier than many of her kind.

There can be all sorts of legitimate reasons for software to launch, seemingly on its own. But when an app frequently and repeatedly launches itself against your wishes, mangled file associations and flawed startup settings could be the cause.

Planning to buy a new Windows 8 system or upgrade your not-so-old Windows 7 system to the new OS? You can choose from a bevy of new notebooks and peripheral devices to make the transition to Windows 8’s touchscreen paradigm easier than you might think.

The widely covered and “immediate” departure of Steven Sinofsky, the now-former Windows chief at Microsoft, late Monday night is a big story. It’s also a story full of speculation and qualifiers such as “some say,” when the topic turns to why Sinofsky left the company.

Windows’ Services tool gives you very fine control over how and when your system services run. The Services tool is one of Windows’ Administrative Tools, a suite of professional-quality, system-management utilities used to adjust and control many of the operating system’s essential functions and features.

The recent release of Windows 8 received almost universal attention — the Windows Secrets newsletter and its readers included. As we expected, views on Microsoft’s most controversial OS varied widely among WS readers. Most of the letters would not please Microsoft. Here’s a small sampling of opinions.

How can you use your Microsoft Outlook–based e-mail, contacts, and calendar on an Android smartphone or tablet? It’s surprisingly easy! A number of built-in and free third-party Android tools provide the solution.

For those venturing into Windows 8, one of the first surprises during the installation process is a request for your Microsoft account. Providing your account name is optional, but doing so has numerous implications that extend beyond Windows 8.

We all know that Superstorm Sandy was immensely destructive to the eastern coast of North America, with New York and New Jersey particularly hard-hit. While individuals battled to save their property — and in many cases their lives — huge Internet data centers struggled to stay online.

A Windows Secrets reader dug deep into Windows to solve his PC’s far-too-frequent crashes. He eventually tracked the problem to Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service, a program that can cause crashes or severe slowdowns — and one that most PC users don’t need.

For millions of Internet denizens, Facebook and LinkedIn are crucial for keeping in touch with scattered friends, family, and business contacts. Although the two services have a lot in common, what you use them for will determine which is more worthy of your time.

Microsoft makes it relatively easy to upgrade to new versions of Windows, but not if you’re upgrading your hardware at the same time. To make the process of moving programs and data to a new Win8 machine less time-consuming, Laplink now has PCmover with Windows 8 support.

Well, it’s here. The most controversial version of Windows ever released is out in new PCs and as an upgrade. We won’t predict the success or failure of Windows 8 (there is no shortage of tech pundits who have), but we will provide lots of helpful information on how to get started exploring the new OS.

Win8 is unique among Windows versions; every experienced Windows user will feel significant disorientation on that first journey into the new OS.
I call it “Metro vertigo.” To get you off on the right foot, here’s a one-hour intro to Win8 that will get you up to speed with minimal frustration.

After you successfully download the Windows 8 operating system flavor of your choice, you have still more software adventures on which to embark. To help you concentrate your effort, this week’s Lounge Life focuses on Windows 8 questions.

Chris Pirillo is one of the more entertaining technology observers on the Net. In this amusing clip, he discusses the pros and cons of installing Windows 8. If our Windows 8 stories haven’t persuaded you one way or the other, surely Chris’ explaination will.

The new Windows 8 Start screen hides common Windows commands such as Shutdown, Lock, and Sleep. But by using a process many Windows users are already familiar with, you can add one-click access to almost any Windows function or application.

In the great divide between those who like Windows 8 and those who don’t, I confess I fall into the latter category. But I do like the operating system’s File Explorer — it’s one piece of Win8 that really is an improvement on earlier versions.

Whether you think Microsoft has made a fabulous strategic decision or taken a decidedly wrong turn with its ubiquitous OS, Windows 8 is now on the street. Here’s why I’m actually looking forward to buying a new Windows 8 computer.

By now, it should be clear that Windows 8’s Mondrian-like tiled interface (formerly known as Metro) is optimized for touch-screen devices — and not so friendly for mousing around. When navigating Win8 on a PC with a standard screen, mousing feels awkward and slow; however, learning a few keyboard shortcuts can greatly improve your productivity.

I asked many computer salespeople about Windows 8 — and was truly shocked at inaccurate information provided about the new OS. Few knew the key differences between versions, and almost all offered “advice” that was way off the mark.

A recent mention that Mozilla is winding down active development of its immensely popular e-mail client, Thunderbird, generated a slew of reader mail. Fortunately, many of those letters offered excellent suggestions for alternative applications.

As a short-range, low-power, wireless-communication system, Bluetooth has found its place — primarily connecting headsets to cellular phones. But since its difficult beginnings, Bluetooth protocols have improved, making it ideal for connecting all sorts of small devices.

New operating systems are never perfect from the start, and Windows 8 is certainly no exception. Not only will early Win8 adopters and testers continue to see numerous updates, they should not be surprised when some of those patches fail.

E-mail, Facebook, texting, etc. are all good ways to share new digital stills and videos; but they’re typically an image-by-image, select-and-send process. Dropbox can eliminate those extra steps with its Camera Upload option, available on Android and iOS devices.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres sent one of her writers to Costco with an unusual assignment — to make friends with shoppers (on hidden camera). But to make the mission considerably more difficult, Amy could address new acquaintances only with song lyrics.

No matter how good your precautions, malware can still infect your computer. If you suspect an infection but your antivirus program tells you otherwise, take Windows out of the calculation and run your AV in a non-Windows environment where the infection can’t hide.

As most Windows 7 users know, patching the operating system can result in both minor and major system failures. Windows 8, due out Oct. 26, comes with new tools that should prevent or fix patching problems.

The Windows Task Scheduler can run almost any program automatically — at a time and in a way you set. Task Scheduler is part of Windows’ Administrative Tools, a suite of professional-quality, system-management utilities used to adjust and control many of the operating system’s essential functions and features.

If you spend a lot of time working at your PC, you’re very likely to suffer a computer-related physical ailment eventually — if you haven’t already. There are ways to prevent these workstation-induced injuries, and they start with the keyboard.

Deleting a file you need is bad enough, but accidentally deleting your entire hard drive is truly awful. Fortunately, there are many unformat tools that can restore some, most, or even all of the erased data.

We have our work cut out for us this Patch Tuesday. A missing piece of information in code-signing certificates means that many of the updates we’ve already installed will be reoffered. What started out as a relatively mild Patch Tuesday has suddenly turned severe — and Microsoft indicates this might not be the last of it.

Have you ever been in a meeting or hotel room and suddenly realized that the only copy of an all-important document was on your home/office PC? Both Windows Live Mesh and SkyDrive provide cloud storage and a remote-access path to your files, but Live Mesh is the more flexible of the two.

Partition alignment can enhance the performance of mechanical hard drives; now some sites are recommending the technique for solid-state drives. I disagree, and here’s why — along with an explanation of partition alignment and how to align any drive, mechanical or SSD.

Many businesses, including Microsoft, maintain Facebook pages. As it happens, numerous business units within Microsoft maintain Facebook pages, user-friendly and familiar, now that millions of people know how to “Like” a page and post comments on it.

A recent Adobe blog reported that one of its code-signing security certificates had validated malicious code. This episode puts the security-certificate system under the spotlight once again, and it should prompt many of us to check the status of our Adobe software.

Windows is a comprehensive operating system replete with tools for diagnosing, repairing, and configuring a PC system. But Windows users have also relied on innovative third-party utilities to help Windows run and work even better. Here’s a list of excellent utilities — some from Microsoft, but most from other software vendors — that have been recommended in Windows Secrets articles.

For every zero-day vulnerability we patch, there’s another waiting in the wings — and yet another, no doubt. One of the better tools for protecting our systems from the new threats is Microsoft’s oddly named Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit.

Blogger Arik Hesseldahl noted in an All Things D post that in the second quarter of 2012, PCs consumed only 49 percent of all DRAM memory chips produced. He took this as signifying the beginning of the end of the PC era.

Ultrabooks have had their difficulties gaining respect, but the latest generation might change that. Even though they’re faster, more powerful, and undeniably sexier, these ultra-portable PCs still have their limitations.

As expected, Microsoft quickly released an out-of-cycle patch for Internet Explorer. It’s the only critical update on the monthly second edition of Patch Watch. Microsoft also clarified its policy on the version of Flash embedded in IE 10.

A serious vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 through 9 has come to light, and there’s no patch at this time. If you must use Internet Explorer for specific applications, use another browser as much as possible and remove or disable Java.

Windows 8 has taken it on the chin for all sorts of transgressions — both real and imagined — but for one application, it’s an excellent option. As a home or small-office server, it might be just the excuse you need to take advantage of Microsoft’s discounted Win8 pricing.

When Lounge member WindowWasher found himself redirected to a site he’d not intended to visit, he backed out of it. He then wondered how to prudently assess the real danger of sites such as the one he’d just visited.

When I’m having a miserable episode of computer life, I find it comforting to hear about bad days in other people’s computer lives. It’s not just that misery loves company. It’s also that fellow sufferers have survived to tell the tale.

It can seem like a bad tradeoff: quick malware scans can sometimes miss things, but thorough scans can take hours and seriously slow your system. The solution? Combine the two scan types so you’re extremely well protected and you don’t lose productivity.

Forget about cable television — you can get all the entertainment you need from the Internet. We all know about Netflix and Hulu Plus, but here are three good streaming-video sites that might be new to you.

Many of Windows 8’s changes, such as its tiled start menu, are readily apparent; other changes are far less obvious but arguably more important. Take system updates, for example: changes in Win8 should make it easier and safer to keep the OS secure and up to date.

Standard drive- and file-wiping tools are no longer adequate for completely removing data — especially when used with the newest hard drives. But researchers have identified new procedures that reliably make old data virtually unrecoverable on any drive, whether magnetic or solid-state.

For about a decade, video-game developer and world traveler Matt Harding has danced enthusiastically — though not beautifully — in many exotic locations. In this latest of his viral videos, he dances with new friends in 71 places around the world.

Microsoft Office 2010 On Demand, by Steve Johnson, can prod your memory for those simple — but infrequently used — Office tasks. But it also has the depth to help prepare you to become a Microsoft Certified Applications Specialist (for which you must pass an exam).

If you use Gmail’s Web-based user interface, you know its power and versatility. But you might not know some of its less obvious nuances. Here are eight Gmail tips you might not have encountered before. They could make your e-mail chores easier.

On an unusually light Patch Tuesday, Windows 7 gets three nonsecurity updates and Windows 8 gets its first patch. But Microsoft is scrambling to add Flash updating to Windows 8 in order to protect the newly released platform.

Four free tools offer safe and certain ways to pare your boot times to the minimum. The process takes a little time and effort, but if you follow the steps outlined here, better boot times are all but guaranteed!

Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) can help save your data from an impending hard-drive failure. But you need the right software to see and interpret the SMART warnings most hard drives provide. Fortunately, there’s free software to help.

When your laptop is lost or stolen, the hardware is only the first of your losses. You value it, but you probably value the contents of your hard drive even more. Here are ways to minimize the likelihood of losing your laptop as well as ways to raise your chances of getting it back should the worst happen.

Last week, Microsoft released Windows 8 RTM to MSDN and TechNet subscribers and companies with volume licenses and Software Assurance. So a lot of people are getting a look at the final Windows 8 version. However, we’ve not seen much about its lighter compatriot — Windows RT.

When members of a high-school class reunited this summer to celebrate their long-ago graduation, they asked one of their classmates to get their senior-year annual online. Lounge member t8ntlikly ran into perplexity reproducing captions and photos that spanned spreads.

When system trouble affects more than one program, it can be hard to figure out exactly what’s going on. Here are two ways to peek under the Windows covers and see whether a common thread unites the different failures.

Without cables tethering your Wi-Fi–enabled printer, you no longer need to position the printer near your PC. The addition of ePrint Web services built into some Wi-Fi printers means you can send your print jobs from anywhere you find an Internet connection.

When the need arises to check system RAM, try the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool that comes with Vista and Windows 7 — and is a free download for XP. This app thoroughly exercises your system’s random-access memory, uncovering problems that can cause crashes, hangs, and other errors.

A recent mention of Soluto’s utility (also called Soluto), which can semi-automatically reduce PC startup times, brought a flood of reader mail. Here are some commonly asked questions and comments about the app, with my responses.

Even on well-maintained systems, free system scanners might find hundreds of “problems,” as I discovered from a test of three products from well-known companies. These suites typically offer to fix system problems — for a fee — but are these problems real or just scare tactics to drum up sales?

Many Windows Secrets readers are seasoned systems builders, sophisticated tool users, metaphor makers, and generous souls. We often receive thoughtful letters from these readers. Here’s some of the more interesting mail that’s recently arrived in our inbox.

World Order is a band and dance troupe formed by the retired Japanese mixed-martial artist, Genki Sudo. In this video, World Order comes to streets and monuments of Mexico, which induces a number of passersby to pause and photograph the event. Play the video

Instructions for system tweaks in Vista and Windows 7 don’t always translate well to Windows XP — for example, reducing shutdown delays. Fortunately, making an XP system power down more quickly isn’t hard, if you follow this illustrated step-by-step guide.

Last week, Microsoft unveiled Outlook.com, a replacement for the venerable Hotmail that doesn’t look or act anything like the Hotmail you know. Like Hotmail, Outlook.com is a free Web-based mail service — but with a hint of Metro-things to come.

When an unexpected alert appears on screen, warning that your system needs repair and that paying a small fee will fix it, chances are high it’s malware. Here’s a true story of how one such infection hit an experienced PC user (and the steps needed to remove it) — and how we all can stay vigilant in preventing such attacks.

By the time you read this, chances are good that Microsoft will have its final, final version of Windows 8 ready. Basing my take on a few announcements and drawing on a little bit of history, here’s what’s likely to happen as Windows 8 makes it way to store shelves.

Microsoft finally pulled the plug on the Windows Home Server and Small Business Server product lines. If you have poor or limited bandwidth or high video-storage needs that call for a small server, you still have options.

Most of us who bank or do other sensitive financial transactions online rarely give security a second thought. But all too frequently, online credentials are stolen — giving cyber thieves full access to financial accounts. Here’s how to defend yourself.

The release of Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) 3.0 prompts a test drive of the new version, plus six alternative general-purpose auto-update tools. One surprise: Some of these automatic-update programs can worsen your PC’s condition.

Many PCs ship with OEM-installed partitions whose purpose can be puzzling. Here’s a description of two common types of OEM partitions — and how to handle them as they apply to backups, System Restore, and the like.

Our digital landscape is no longer just about how peripherals connect to PCs; it’s how our many digital devices connect to the Net. Here’s a quartet of new hardware that handles input/output particularly well.

Most computer security experts are probably baking in the Las Vegas sun this week and listening to esoteric presentations at the annual Black Hat security conference. Meanwhile, we get a bit of a summer break, too, from Windows updates; take some time to patch Firefox, say goodbye to Thunderbird, and ponder the use of Windows gadgets.

A recent phishing attempt is a reminder that the bad guys never stop trying to gain access to our PCs and accounts. Take some time for a close look at your Windows machines, to ensure they’re as patched as they could and should be.

In the unlikely chance that you’re using Windows gadgets, you need to get rid of them — right now! Those seemingly innocuous accessory apps that you stick onto your desktop, included with Vista and Windows 7, could be used to subvert your system.

Lounge member StickBoy is irked by Windows 7 popups that pause the action when he tries to open files. His exasperation sets off a discussion in the Windows 7 forum regarding the various pros and cons of warning messages.

The open-source GNU Image Manipulation Program can do just about anything the expensive, full-blown versions of Photoshop can do. GIMP can save you hundreds of dollars — but it can also be difficult to master. Here’s help.

This week, Microsoft made Office 2013 Consumer Preview available to the masses. This new software still has a long way to go to achieve reliability, but you can test the tools, play with the new touch interface, and generally get a feel for this new release. Here are a few highlights.

Lexington, Mass., was in glorious, late-spring bloom when I visited Windows Secrets reader Helene Mayer. Helene had a houseful of PCs (running XP, Vista, and Win7) exhibiting a variety of problems. I was there to help.

Magician Marco Tempest used an application he wrote to synchronize videos across the screens of multiple iPods — which he collected from audience members just before showtime — for a TED talk last summer.

Windows collects lots of temporary files that can, over time, consume large amounts of disk space and slow system performance. But even when you’re diligent about cleaning them out, some temporary files resist removal — and for good reasons.

When you buy a book, you expect to have it forever — not until technology changes or the bookseller takes it away, as is the case for most e-books sold today. You can add new volumes to your permanent library if you buy e-books unencumbered by digital rights management, but your choices are limited.

This month’s security updates highlight a worrisome trend: the bad guys are attacking our PCs with new exploits before we’ve received patches to protect us. One way we can apply some early protection for one of these zero-day threats is to apply Microsoft fixits — until a formal patch is released.

Ever look inside a solid-state drive? Neither had I — until I bought one and had to disassemble it to make it fit into my notebook. This story ultimately has a happy ending, but unexpected trouble along the way made the process far more difficult than it needed to be.

Win7’s Restore Previous Versions system is designed to automatically back up your PC and let you easily recover earlier versions of almost any file or folder. But some faulty configurations can prevent RPV (and related systems such as System Restore) from working as they should.

If you want to speed up a slow computer or build a peppy new machine, install one of the new SSDs. But don’t overlook the hazards this amazing technology poses for your data: SSDs fail differently and possibly faster than traditional drives, so you must use them with care and back them up meticulously.

Work on Windows 8 is in the home stretch, but predicting its success is still pure speculation — probably more so than with any previous Window release. Microsoft’s announcement that it will build and sell its own Windows 8 computers just adds more drama to an already opaque roll-out schedule.

When Lounge member IreneLinda’s external hard drive mysteriously began to drop out of action and then back in again, she wrote to the Lounge for advice about diagnostic tools. In due time, she wrote again, asking for recommendations for new external hard drives. The way of all flesh is a rule of digital life, too. More.

Since the last time we saw Henri, he’s learned he’s famous on the Internet. But for what? He’s suspicious. His French is mocked — but why? It’s “purrfect,” he tells us, in subtly ironic French, of course, with English subtitles.

When aggressive websites and advertisers hook into your browser, your online experience can slow to the point of frustration — even uselessness! But the right software and settings, both built-in and add-on, put you back in control.

Whether it’s notebooks, tablets, phones, peripherals, or even software, we want three things from our mobile tools: they must be light, fast, and intuitive to use. Here is a quartet of products that meet those rules for the road.

It should come as a pleasant surprise that you’re unlike to find any new patches this week in Windows Update. However, Windows Update is itself getting a silent update. Here’s a few tips to ensure no hiccups during the process.

No matter what browser you use, chances are good that you’ve never even heard of some its powerful and useful commands, features, and functions. Here’s a guided tour to some of the most interesting — and unfamiliar — functions in Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox.

“The data must not be accessible by the administrator” is an intriguing requirement. Lounge member Philjarrah seeks to improve security in a family computer, and keeping data safe from the administrator is one of his aims. It doesn’t take long for his advisors in the Lounge to make some human as well as technical suggestions.

Is frequent defragging &#8212 and similar hard-drive maintenance &#8212 worth any potential extra wear and tear on a drive’s components? In that ongoing debate, a comparison of the costs and benefits suggests it is.

Because most of us don’t use PowerPoint every day, we might need to refresh our knowledge of its tools when it comes time to make a presentation. This article offers a quick refresher for users of the animation features in PowerPoint 2010 and also answers a few other reader questions about PowerPoint functions.

When out of the office, we want our computing devices small and light — which explains the phenomenal number of business travelers taking an iPad along for the ride. There’s just one problem: there’s still no Microsoft Office for the iPad. There are solutions to this not-inconsequential problem, but they’re far from perfect. Here are two of the best.

Windows’ Performance Monitor is the key to understanding the details of your PC’s operation. This tool (built into XP, Vista, and Win7) lets you see, in real time and in collected data logs, how your PC reacts as different programs run — or fail to run!

The sight of male birds strutting in their gaudy mating-season plumage makes even Saturday Night Fever look rather dull. It might just inspire you to find music to suit the mood, as this videographer was.

Lots of scraps of data get stored in the pagefile, so does it make sense to wipe the file at shutdown? It can take a long time to wipe a large pagefile, delaying shutdown by full minutes in some cases.

Getting tired of iTunes, Amazon, and Pandora? The Internet swings with great music of every type and style on alternative sites. To give you a taste of what’s available, here are three sites that take very different approaches to online music streaming and downloading. All their music is free or reasonably priced — and unshackled from digital-rights management.

The scramble is on again to patch Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol; there are no known attacks via RDP yet, but they’re expected soon. Other Microsoft products fixed this week are the usual players: Internet Explorer, .NET, and the Windows kernal.

The iPad (and other iOS devices) might be the coolest computing device, but it lacks a clear and simple way to share files with Windows PCs. Sure, an iPad contains storage and connects to your PC via USB, but it doesn’t behave like a flash drive or Android phone. Here are three tricks for moving files on and off an iPad.

Neuroscience is a perpetually emerging science, and it’s not surprising that it’s a hot topic in publishing. Science and technology writer Matthew MacDonald has branched out from his more-usual subjects, Visual Basic and .NET, to write Your Brain: the Missing Manual.

Chagrin Falls, Ohio, is a two-parade town on Memorial Day weekend. The high-school marching band, pipe bands, Scouts, and dignitaries show up at both Ԃ and a sixth-grader recites the Gettysburg Address in front of the assembled townspeople on the ceremonial Monday.

Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 won’t support DVD-video playback unless you pay extra for Windows Media Center. Consumers will be displeased, but Microsoft has dropped DVD support for some good reasons — and there are good workarounds if you know the secrets.

Microsoft has released a rare out-of-cycle security advisory for the Flame malware. Flame — together with a letter from a reader — highlights possible cracks in our trust of Internet security certificates.

Digital photography gives us the freedom to take hundreds of photos and videos of places and people, at very little expense — so many images, that family and friends might be blasé at best about your latest efforts. But three little-known apps from Microsoft can put some unexpected novelty back into your images.

Many Windows Secrets readers were recently exasperated by a merry-go-round of .NET patches. These were apparently already installed successfully but then presented themselves in the users’ tray, ready to be installed again.

A new spin on an old malware trick, the “Windows Daily Adviser” uses realistic-looking — and totally bogus — security warnings to dupe unwary PC users. Fortunately, this scam is easily avoided — once you know what to look for and what not to do.

The mark of a truly useful peripheral is its ability to help you get work done faster and more conveniently. Here are four products that easily fit that challenge, both at the office and when you’re out playing road warrior.

The halfway point between Patch Tuesdays is a good time to revisit those .NET updates I love so much. I typically anticipate .NET update problems, and this week .NET came through with a detection glitch that reminded me how much I truly don’t love patching this platform.

For Windows users who manage their own system updates, the patching process is a bit like going to the dentist — you really hope it’ll be pain-free. For making that twice-monthly chore a little easier, here are some simple tips and tricks to avoid patching woes.

Since it was founded in Montreal in 1984 by Guy Lalibert&#233 and Daniel Gauthier, Cirque du Soleil has raised its tents all over the world — and sent out armies of acrobats, contortionists, clowns, dancers, and musicians to entertain even larger armies of admirers.

For Windows XP systems, the recent Duqu patch detailed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-034 might be a case of the cure being worse than the disease. Attempts to install KB 2686509 have resulted in frustration and confusion — and the documentation wasn’t much help.

Windows has a long and honorable history of including advanced tools and options that help unlock the operating system’s full potential. In this first installment of a series of articles on these tools, you’ll see how a few easy tweaks can give you two-click access to hundreds of Windows’ most powerful features.

A few days ago, Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky published a FAQ concerning Windows Media Center and DVD playback in Windows 8. According to Sinofsky, only buyers of Windows 8 Pro will be able to include Windows Media Center and its DVD playback software with their operating system.

We at Windows Secrets obviously don’t use Wacky Web Week to demonstrate our devotion to best practices. By their nature, best practices are rarely wacky. But this week, we’ve found a driving test both devilishly pedagogical and too delicious to keep to ourselves.

Last week, in a widely anticipated move, Microsoft officially started tolling the bells for Windows Live’s demise. While the current Windows Live apps will be available for the foreseeable future, they’re now orphans — soon to be replaced by new Windows 8 Metro apps.

DNSChanger virus spells ‘Internet Doomsday’ … The end is nigh, according to the FBI … ‘Internet doomsday’ will strike us all on July 9 … That’s what a couple of popular websites had to say about the DNSChanger virus. What a crock!

Perhaps you were unaware that a handsome but disaffected French intellectual named Henri has been speaking his piece on the Internet. Henri will tell you he’s surrounded by morons. But that’s no reason to avoid his company — au contraire.

When digital photos need fixing, having the right tools at hand — and knowing how to use them — can make the process fun and pleasing. If you’re not inclined to spend much on a photo editor, the latest free editing apps provide some surprisingly powerful tools.

Microsoft just released details on the versions of Windows 8 it’ll offer when the OS ships — most likely sometime in October. Although the company will simplify the current huge array of Windows versions with Win8, the choices are really not any simpler at all.

An editor who posted a manuscript to a website discovered that the paragraph formatting had been converted to a “Normal” she didn’t like. So she asked the Lounge members in the Word Processing forum how to reverse the look of the manuscript, simply, to what it used to be.

Most personal computers — and many work PCs — eventually acquire lots of entertainment (music, family photos, and assorted videos) on their hard drives. But when it comes time to share with friends or just kick back in an easy chair for your own enjoyment, all that media looks and sounds better on your big HDTV. Here’s how to make the best PC/TV connection.

We get another breather from new Windows and application fixes, giving us time to review some past problem patches. Perhaps Redmond is so busy coding Windows 8 to find new things to fix in earlier Windows versions.

We include pictures in everything — from blog posts to annual reports to letters to Grandma. But easy as it is to insert pictures into a doc, we’re often flummoxed by how to keep them exactly where we want them. This article explores a few of the maddening Word picture-placement issues our readers (and editors) have faced.

The amount of space a file occupies on your hard drive is different from — and almost always larger than — the actual/reported size of the file. You have to allow for the difference when sizing a new hard drive.

The era of the single-function device is over. Today, it’s all about versatility — including the option of operating without a connection to a PC. A quartet of new products include some novel — and unexpected — capabilities for home and office use.

As with sniffles and bad moods in a family, if one householder has computer trouble, most likely it will spread one way or another to her relatives. Lounge member sylviesinc thought IE 9 was responsible for failed connections to websites when she checked in to the Internet Explorer forum for assistance. Soon, she was benchmarking DNS servers — and soon after that, her computer was working fine again.

We at Windows Secrets live in Seattle, which is practically next door to one of the most beautiful cities on the planet — Vancouver, British Columbia. But we think very highly of our city, too, which might explain why we’re eager to spread less-flattering (but true, of course) facts about Vancouver. Some of these you’ll find in this week’s video.

Web pages that mix secure (https) and unsecure (http) elements are a problem. Here’s how to reduce repetition of “Security warning: Do you want to view only the Web-page content that was delivered securely?”

All too often, we send and receive sensitive information by unsecured e-mail, leaving us open to data and identity theft. Fortunately, there are relatively easy and inexpensive solutions for transferring personal data over the Web to friends, relatives, and business associates.

You might be comforted to know that computers managing e-commerce transactions are typically certified. If a business accepts credit-card payments, its customers should know their information is secure on the e-commerce servers. However, Lounge member WaterBoyz is not in the comfort zone yet: his Windows 7 computer was audited — with the report that its port 111 is open to the outside world.

What happens when a couple of electrical-engineering students ponder music? If they’re Eric Goodchild and Steven Caton, they build a couple of giant Tesla coils to serve as their own private rock stars.

With its voracious appetite for disk space, WinSxS can be a problem for users of solid-state and other relatively small drives. Fortunately, Win7’s little-known Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool can help regain gigabytes of space.

Every time you launch a new program, visit a website, or open a suspicious e-mail, something terrible could happen — even with honest software. Even legitimate and malware-free software can insert itself where you don’t want it, dumping hundreds of entries into the Windows Registry — and malicious software will do much worse. Sandboxing can reduce your risk.

There are many good reasons to limit how kids use a PC and where they go on the Internet — and sometimes good reasons to control where adults go, too. Malware, child predators, financial scams, and more are all threats to take seriously. Windows 7’s Parental Controls is a good start, but for the best protection you need to go beyond what Win7 offers.

In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s springtime — time to revisit Windows 7 and Office service packs. Our lack of major updates at the end of the month means we can devote time to getting needed service packs installed.

When you’re out for a relaxed day wandering through local shops, nothing’s luckier than happening upon a live group of talented musicians — unless it’s when the performers happen upon you. This past May, members of the Sjællands Symfoniorkester (Copenhagen Philharmonic) gathered at the Copenhagen Central Station to perform Ravel’s “Bolero” — much to the evident pleasure of a surprised public.

There’s a new variation on the old “Nigerian” or “419” scam, one that invokes the names of PayPal, Western Union, and the FBI — and the scammers are raking in billions. Let me introduce you to the way these scum operate — and show you a few tricks that may keep you from adding to their booty.

The Windows 8 forum in the Lounge is full of postings this week — the recent Win8 Consumer Preview release has been occupying a lot of minds and computer hard drives. If you’re interested in Microsoft’s next operating system, you’re likely to find lots of interesting commentary in the Win8 forum.

The big cats in Tanzania exhibited typical feline curiosity when a camera-equipped, remote-controlled buggy rolled right up to their noses. The lions were more interested than wildlife-photographer brothers Will and Matthew Burrard-Lucas might have wished when they constructed their wheeled photo bots.

There can be times when anti-malware applications are too aggressive and cause unexpected problems, such as blocking legitimate downloads. When simply disabling the anti-malware tools is not enough, harsher remedies might be needed.

Almost everyone has friends or family who forward urban legends or political tall tales to their entire contacts lists — and many exasperated recipients have considered closing whole e-mail accounts to stop the flow of that frequently annoying communication.

If you feel moved to action, here’s a way to combat inflations, distortions, and untruths — responsibly — within your personal network (or for a broader audience): research those claims and send the facts back to your bad-news correspondents.

Whether you’re facing that mass file migration from an old PC to a new one, or you just want to move selected files from one digital device to another — or to the Cloud — new USB and wireless devices make this task as simple as dragging and dropping.

A quartet of devices makes it quick and easy to move documents, photos, music, and other data among PCs, Macs, tablets, and smartphones via USB, Wi-Fi — or both.

Using safe, free virtual PC software, you can set up and run the Windows 8 Consumer Preview inside your current PC without affecting your other programs or your installed version of Windows. This method lets you test-drive Windows 8 without having to make potentially risky changes to your current setup. There’s no need for dual-booting, special partitions, and so on.

Diagnosis and repair can be difficult when crashes leave behind few clues and a crippled machine. But a multi-pronged approach, using easily available and free tools, can usually get you on the path to a solution.

Can a tablet app that connects to a Cloud-based version of Windows 7 provide one more reason to abandon your PC? OnLive Desktop Plus is making an audacious bet that it can give iPad users inexpensive access to Windows 7, Office, and other Windows apps via the Web.

KB 2621440 is the one patch released this Patch Tuesday that needs to be installed immediately on all computers and servers that use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop app. Remote Desktop is used on many computers and servers for remote access. If you use it, patch it now!

If you download and install Windows 8 Consumer Preview, released late last week, I can almost guarantee that you won’t like it. I know only a handful of experienced Windows users (who don’t work for or with Microsoft) who say they like Windows 8. But it’s the future, eh?

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been keeping a lot of people busy lately, including those of us at Windows Secrets. We’ve added a forum for Windows 8 in the Lounge, where you can see that a lively conversation has begun.

A 1918 shipwreck on a South Pacific Island almost doomed the entire population of an indigenous creature known as the Lord Howe Island stick insect. Big as it was — as large as a human hand — it was no match for the rats from the wrecked British supply ship. It took a mere two years for the rats to finish off the entire population on the island.

A reader encounters popups offering to scan her system and update her drivers. Here’s what to do — and what not to do — when you encounter offers like those, plus the right way to perform malware scans and driver and software updates.

The first two installments of this series showed how to pin just about anything to the Start menu. They also showed how to work with (and against!) the Frequently Used Programs list and the All Programs menu. In this final installment, you’ll learn how to change the right side of the Start menu — plus I’ll toss in a few extra, surprising tidbits.

In a hardworking, digitized world, it’s hard to imagine tools more sought after than those that show up reliably on any portable device and work well — or at least as well as advertised. Whether Microsoft’s Cloud-based Office 365 is that tool — in fact or even in potential — is still an open question.

Nothing works better than a nearly full hard drive to stimulate a fit of cleaning. But wait — what exactly are those hundreds of security-licensing-slc-component-sku- … files taking up so much valuable space?

Our Feb. 16 Top Story reviewing resource usage among six free antivirus tools generated a flood of reader mail. Here’s some follow-on discussion about AV resource use, based mostly on questions and comments about Microsoft Security Essentials.

In my Feb. 23 Windows Secrets Top Story, I took you through the intricacies of pinning apps, folders, and files into Windows 7’s start menu. In Part II, I show you how to change the Start Menu’s frequently used programs list and also modify the essential All Programs menu.

In a week when Microsoft is keynoting the RSA security conference and announcing Windows 8 Consumer Preview, we’re lucky enough to have end-of-the-month patches that are quite tame — almost boring. And that gives us a chance to catch our collective patching breath and revisit some troublesome updates.

Since 2004, the Windows Secrets Newsletter has given its subscribers thousands of tips for getting the most out of the Windows operating system. Windows XP Survival Guide: Keep your XP system running for the long haul is made up of our best stories on maintaining and troubleshooting Microsoft’s most successful operating system to date.

Since the debut of Windows 95, the Start menu has offered an easily navigated and extensible haven for all the programs we don’t use every day. In Part 1 of a series of stories on getting the most out of Windows’ Start menu, we start with the basics: pinning applications, folders, and files.

No doubt about it, Windows 7 is the most advanced Windows Microsoft has ever built. But for new Win7 users, discovering the operating system’s many new capabilities is a challenge. David Pogue’s opus, Windows 7: The Missing Manual, describes every aspect of Windows 7, from basics such as the Start Menu to advanced applications such as setting up Win7 on a network.

If you forgot to festoon yourself in feathers and beads, failed to put on your mask and pick up your bassoon, and (furthermore) forbore to shimmy on down to the riverside, the folks in this video did it all for you — at Mardi Gras this week, down in New Orleans.

Windows 7’s Reliability Analysis Component (RAC) and related software usually work silently in the background, unnoticed by Win7 users — until something goes wrong with these diagnostic apps. Here’s how to repair or disable the RAC system, should it fail — and how to access its reliability-analysis records when it’s working as designed.

You can’t do much on a computer without a file manager, and Win7’s Windows Explorer is one of the best. But with a few tweaks and adjustments, you can make Explorer fit your particular computing style.

We’ve gotten good at updating our Windows and Office software — so good that criminals are looking elsewhere. A new report suggests that patching your non-Microsoft applications might be just as important to a secure computing environment as keeping Windows and Office up to date — if not more.

As noted in this week’s Introduction, Windows Secrets is launching a Letters column — reader e-mails that we think are especially interesting. Leading off this new column is a critical view of Microsoft’s Office Ribbon interface, discussed in a Woody Leonhard article.

Many people organize their work and lives in e-mail folders. Lounge member kelliann1’s system is particularly robust. She wants to see an Outlook Express/Windows Mail client in Windows 8. So she asks other Loungers in the Non-Outlook E-mail forum whether they’ve heard any pleasing rumors about a Windows 8 mail client.

Aside from a brief hiccup with a Silverlight patch, our February Patch Tuesday settles down with the usual suspects: Internet Explorer, DLL preloading, and .NET. If you failed to buy your loved one a present on Valentine’s Day, perhaps you can convince them that updating Windows took priority. Okay — even I, a confirmed geek, know that won’t fly.

It appears that Microsoft has heard our complaints about a tedious part of the Windows updating process. Changes in Windows 8 should make the never-ending task of installing patches a bit easier, by reducing mandatory system restarts.

If you carry a smartphone or other portable device, it’s likely you want your calendar to have the same data on it, no matter where you are. Lounge member t8ntlikly posted a query asking how to make his Windows Live calendar the default calendar in Outlook — just so he could keep Outlook and his Windows phone synchronized.

System Restore has been around since Windows ME, but it’s still misunderstood by many Windows users. It has also evolved over time, gaining new features and functions — which only adds to the confusion.

The Microsoft Ribbon evokes a wide range of responses, from abject apathy to raging conflagration. I’ve never been a fan of the Ribbon, but then I didn’t get to make the rules. Love or hate the Ribbon, you can make it more to your liking — add buttons, move controls around, create new tabs, and more.

You have arrays of sophisticated computer tools to choose from for almost any endeavor, but you can’t seem to get your text in plain form anymore, even when that’s the only thing you need. For times when simplest is best, here are some tools for transforming formatted or bitmapped material into words — just words.

Like it or not — and I know that some of you don’t — tablets are changing the way the world works and plays. Whether it’s an iPad, Kindle, Nook, or a tablet based on Google’s Android OS, mobile devices are swirling across the computing landscape. Here’s how to pick the right one.

Users of Google’s various services are previewing the revised privacy policy going into effect March 1. The terms of Google’s new policy have provoked discussion in the Lounge’s Social Media forum. How much personal information must we surrender to allow desired services to function?

Windows Media Player (WMP) has evolved enormously since its humble beginnings, but not all its improvements are easy to find. For example, you can control the default two-second silence WMP adds between tracks — but only if you know where Microsoft buried the setting.

Once upon a time, researchers and writers might have debated the virtues of paper notebooks versus index cards for recording their thoughts and findings. Today, it’s all gone digital. The choice between two leading note-taking apps — OneNote or Evernote — depends in large part on how well they integrate with the platforms and software you’re already using.

Not everyone has hardware to spare, but if you happen to have an extra Windows PC, you can put it to work entertaining you. With a minor investment in time and money, you can set it up to record and play TV shows.

A recent purchaser of a Kindle Fire assumed she needed AV software for it. But her mother isn’t so sure about that. Are e-readers vulnerable to malware? Lounge member Author Miss Mae brings the question to the Other Applications forum and hears about a surprising range of additions that other Lounge members have made to their Kindles and Nooks.

Here’s what to do when unknown and uncommunicative software tries — and fails — to launch at boot. Any of three different approaches, including careful use of Windows’ built-in selective startup, should get to the root of the problem.

If you keep Windows and your programs in one partition and your data files in another, you’ll be able to make restorations faster and more easily. Here’s why you should make the split, plus step-by-step instructions for how to do it.

After each Patch Tuesday release, I scan the security forums and websites for reports of patching issues. I morbidly call this monthly search “looking for dead bodies.” At this time, I’m still waiting to see what happens with MS12-006.

If you’ve ever struggled with your PC’s BIOS — or been knee-capped by a rootkit that assailed the BIOS — you undoubtedly wondered why this archaic part of every PC wasn’t scrapped long ago. Well, be of good cheer: Windows 8 will finally pull the PC industry out of the BIOS generation and into a far more capable — and controversial — alternative, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.

Windows Secrets reader Repainter saw last week’s Top Story on smartphone apps and wondered whether he could use those same apps on his tablet. He took his question to the Lounge, where he was encouraged to give them a try.

Some third-party, add-on software promises to increase your security by preventing websites from tracking you across the Web. But all the current major browsers have enhanced privacy modes available that do the same thing, for free, with just a few clicks.

In the brave new world of huge software packages and gigantic memory requirements, capacity counts. Here’s what you need to know about upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit machines — because sooner or later, upgrades will happen to you.

Creating truly secure passwords can be difficult — at least for some security professionals, it seems. A recent data breach at the private intelligence firm Stratfor revealed some all-too-common password weaknesses. Here’s how to strengthen your own.

Some free and low-cost apps make your Android phone and your Windows PC work together as a team.

Use these tools to optimize your home or office Wi-Fi setup, remotely control your PC from your phone (or your phone from your PC), share and transfer files in either direction, create and edit full-blown Microsoft Office documents on your phone, and much more!

Microsoft’s newly released beta version of Windows Defender Offline, a rootkit-sniffing and Windows-rehabilitation tool, should be the latest addition to your bag of Windows-repair tricks. WDO should be able to catch a wide variety of nasties that evade detection by more traditional antivirus methods.

If your good judgment fails in a fit of holiday exuberance and you end up with malware on your computer, keep the Security & Backups forum in mind. Currently, fellow Lounge members are helping Tiger4 get out of a complete jam.

If you enjoyed spending time with family and friends over the holidays and are looking for good ways to keep in direct contact, look to the Web for free services. When an e-mail or Facebook post just won’t do, here are popular voice/video-communication tools worth trying out.

As music CDs give way to downloaded tunes, PCs are taking on a new role as personal, digital jukeboxes. There are plenty of Windows music players to choose from, but one of the best — Window Media Player 12 — comes free with every copy of Windows 7. Here’s how to make it even better.

We ended 2011 with an out-of-cycle .NET update — one that desktop users can ignore for now but Web-server admins should make a high priority. There are also a few other leftover 2011 updates it’s time to put behind us.

Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, WinFind, Windows Gizmos, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of iNET Interactive. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.